ArticlesRailway Safety Permit Fees Increased

The transport department published the revised fees in Government Gazette 42391 in terms of the National Railway Safety Regulator Act.

Some of the fees payable to the Railway Safety Regulator include R56 333 for transportation of mining goods for group A operators, R18 459 for transportation of dangerous goods for group B operators and R3 335 for transportation of passengers or general freight for group C operators.

Group A operators will pay R129 244.74 for a temporary safety permit and group C R51 698.32 for a test and commissioning safety permit.

Permit fee rates for non-rail-related and rail-related revenue generating train operators, network operators and station operators are also set down.

The annual fees came into force on 1 April 2019 and apply until 31 March 2020.

Meanwhile, the transport minister, Blade Nzimande, has announced a two-stage structured intervention to address challenges at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA).

In phase 1, a Team of Organisational or Performance Experts will be set up to undertake a two-month analysis of PRASA focused on issues that have held back turn-around strategies.

In phase 2, a Turn-Around Execution Team led by the department will be appointed to monitor and report progress to the PRASA Board and the minister.

Other actions to be undertaken include extending the current board by six months, the department to help identify necessary capacity for the acting group CEO’s office, board to improve reliability of trains and train cancellations by 60% and 41% improvement in trains delays, security personnel to be deployed on trains, PRASA communication strategy to be enhanced, at least one priority corridor in each region to be established and performance agreements to be concluded by all employees by 30 June 2019.

According to the minister, the issue of the vandalisation and torching of trains has been escalated to cabinet’s security cluster.

Legal amendments are also on the cards to enable the torching of trains to be declared a crime of arson.